Here's what we know: The Detroit Lions quarterback has a right shoulder injury and won't play this week against the Buffalo Bills. That job will go to Shaun Hill despite the fact he broke his left forearm less than four weeks ago.

The real drama surrounds the mystery of Stafford's injury. According to a source close to the situation, the initial tests on Stafford revealed a Grade 3 separation, which would be worse than the Grade 2 separation he suffered earlier this season. The source also said the Lions feared they might lose Stafford for the rest of the season.

"I addressed all of this on Monday and nothing has changed since Monday," Schwartz said. "I said we'll get him back as soon as we can. And any other speculation, any other rumor or anything else to do with Matt is irresponsible. Nothing's changed since Monday, and I'm going to leave it right there."

Does an "irresponsible" report mean it's inaccurate?

"Here's the deal. I'm not going to comment on. ... I'm not going to play Marco Polo on commenting and responding to every rumor or every other thing," Schwartz said. "We keep our evaluations and our things like that in-house and we don't announce those kind of things. I think it's irresponsible to say that he's considered for injured reserve, that he's going to have surgery, that his season's over.

"There was no basis for that, and anything I said in the press conference on Monday, nothing's changed from that standpoint."

Apparently, though, something has changed. On Monday, Schwartz said, "The one thing is that we're not talking about surgical options."

On Wednesday, Stafford said he wasn't sure if surgery would be an option.

"I don't know, I've got to talk to the doctors first to see if they think that's an option or not," said Stafford, who also was asked if this injury was worse than the one he suffered in the season opener. "Uh, I don't know. It's kind of hard to tell, I guess."

Stafford also said the decision-making process is ongoing because he hasn't absorbed all the medical opinions yet.

"No. I still have to get some soreness and swelling out and we'll move from there," he said.

When asked if this injury was more painful, Stafford said, "I don't know."

If that wasn't murky enough, there also is the intrigue of the fourth quarterback. The Lions claimed rookie Zac Robinson off waivers from Seattle on Tuesday, giving them four quarterbacks on the roster.

"He's a guy we liked when he came out, we saw a lot of him at the Senior Bowl when we were down there and we had the opportunity to get him on waivers and got him here," Schwartz said. "He fits a lot of the things we're looking for in a quarterback. And it's more to do with where Shaun is and just covering our bases there, because Matt's not going to be in a position where he can be our third quarterback Sunday."

If the Lions like Robinson that much, it's reasonable to assume they might want to keep him on the roster to see if he fits that developmental No. 3 role next season. But keeping four quarterbacks this season is a luxury NFL teams can't afford.

"We'll make that decision on a weekly basis," Schwartz said.

If somebody's got to go, who? And to where? Is Drew Stanton a candidate to get cut? That would leave the Lions with a rookie backup quarterback who doesn't know the system. At this point, Robinson doesn't even know the names of his teammates. Or, is it possible Stafford could go on injured reserve?

Schwartz said if somebody is injured but not on injured reserve -- the subject in this case was kicker Jason Hanson -- it probably means the Lions are expecting him back before the end of the season.

Does that scenario include Stafford?

"You can read into that however you want to read into it," Schwartz said. "We needed two roster spots and we didn't place (Stafford) on IR with either one of those, including a quarterback we added to the roster."

So the fact that neither Hanson nor Stafford is on injured reserve is a good sign for both?

"You guys are all private detectives, you figure it out," Schwartz said. "Is everybody good? You like that sound bite?"

One final thing: It should be noted that when a shoulder injury forced Stafford out of the lineup last season, he remained on the active roster for two weeks before he finally was placed on the injured reserve list.